Helping you stay healthy and balanced

The Countdown Continues…20 days to go

June 7, 2011

Day 27

Fun and Conditioning

Oops – I’m falling behind so I’ll just toss in a few days here and there…it’s hard to do the works outs and keep writing about them!

Seems like the time is flying by. I’m working hard but looking at the videos I’m not sure if I’ll be ready for this run. I was just reading about one guy that does a mile run – 100 pull ups 200 push ups and 300 squats, then another one mile run to get ready for the main race; I do 15 pull ups – ahem, not quite up to speed yet. I realize it’s all about fun but the conditioning is going to be the difference between fun and fatigue…so the training continues.

Rest day included a little stretching and lots of feeding myself some good healthy food.

Day 26

Hard upper body workout. Well, hard for me anyway.

The Gear

16 kg Kettle bell and a 10 kg dumb-bell.

I have a pull up bar in my kitchen doorway. After warming up I tied the Kettle bell around my waist for the workout – similar to day 29.

First workout

Wide grip Pull-ups – 5 x 3 sets

Under hand pull ups 7 x 2 sets.

I removed the Kettle bell and picked up the 10 kg dumb-bell.

Second workout.

Hanging by my left arm, I did 15 curls with my right arm ( obviously)

Rest for one minute or so and switch arms for another 15 curls.

Third workout.

This was a real torture for me. Push ups are my least favorite exercise, though one of the most useful.

Push-ups for one hour. I started with 10 push-ups each minute. That quickly came to failure at minute 10. I had to take a break. Then I did as many as I could each minute thereafter but wasn’t able to keep the pace.

I continued on, taking breaks as I needed. Final result – 295 push-ups in one hour. I really thought I would do better.

That pretty much ended that day. A little more stretching and hit the showers.

Day 25

Next morning I was up at dawn. It was cool and raining a little so I bundled up and headed out.

Cardio and Speed.

I stretched out and was quite surprised to discover I wasn’t in any great pain as I thought I would be. Pleased with that, I started running my regular route. One kilometer out is a foot ball field. Amarican foot ball y’all. Lines painted every ten meters ( yards?).

There I went into sprints. First 50 meters. Then 60. Then 75. The two full 100 meter sprints. Man- I was winded.

I continued my run, a slight incline for about another 1.5 kms.

There I had people that were heading to work and school,wondering what the heck was going on as I did 10 tuck jumps and 10 burpees right there on the sidewalk.

Catching my breath I headed back to the football field and did one more full 100 meter sprint. It’s at times like that when I really appreciate the speed of those professional athletes.

From there I continued the run home. A total of 5 km.

Day 24

Leisure day. Well not really a leisure day but I had a lot of things to do and I got called into work early. So I took it as a rest day – what else could I do?

Day 23

Kettle-bell work out. Back to the basics. It’s been awhile since I did just a KB workout. I watched a few videos for inspiration. This is one of my favorites. The guy is an animal – way over my potential but it gets me going.

My workout

Swings – 10 each side

Press – 10 each side

Snatch – 10 each side

Windmills – 5 each side

Figure eights hold to chest – 20

Cool down around the waist 20 times.

The ab wheel of pain.

I’ve read a lot of negative things about this little wheel – but I love it. It’s tough on the shoulders and really works my lower abs. So

Ab rolls – 10 x 2 sets.

Day 22

Time for another heavy workout so off I went to a local park and the ski hill.

The gear – two 20.5 kg power-block dumb-bells.

1) Leap Frog…with weights.

I carried the dumb bells to the bottom of the hill. A ten minute warm up. Using proper form to avoid any back damage I pick up one of the weights then dash about 30-40 steps, placing the weight on the ground. I then run back to the other weight, pick it up and dash past the first weight by about another 30 – 40 steps. I continued this “leapfrog” process until I reached the top of the hill where I almost passed out. I didn’t – so far so good

Water and air break. Both weights back to the bottom of the hill.

2) Triple Decker

Using the weights for support I do 5 leg raises; flip over and do five push-ups, head down the hill. Then I pick up both weights and do five Military Presses. Holding the weights at shoulder height I dash (?) about 30 – 40 steps. Put the weights down and do my leg raises, push-ups and Military Presses again. I continued this process to the top of the hill. Sorry – here I caved in for about five minutes. But I survived.

3)Zig-Zag Leap Frog

Like the first set of leap frog weight exercises I started at the bottom of the hill but instead of dashing straight up the hill I zig zagged my way up carrying one weight at a time. Running on an angled incline of the hill puts an extra challenge to this run.

That brings me to today and a much needed rest. It seems like a lot of work to me but I feel I really have to push it to the limit before I’m ready and comfortable to do the run

This was a long post but you get the idea…I’m going for the gusto!! No holding back…onward and upward and all that jazz!